Canada’s Entrepreneur

Irene Strong was born in Nakusp, BC, a small village in the West Kootenayregion along the Upper Arrow Lakes. She has since worked with NBC Olympics, TED Conferences and Habitat for Humanity Greater Vancouver, among many other organizations. These great organizations have all influenced Irene’s mortgage business model. A model built on a foundation of perseverance, education and belief in the power of homeownership while assisting her clients in realizing their dreams of owning a home.

Alecia Repp is a small town girl from Alberta who moved to the big city of Vancouver at the age of 17 to start a new life for herself. She became a professional makeup artist running her own business. During that time she was also creating side projects like business trainings and online courses. Now she is living full time in Thailand running a full time coaching and consulting business. She also runs a branding agency. Most importantly she started a retreat business called the Self Love Retreat and the first one is coming this August in Greece.

Kris Hartvigsen is the CEO & Co-Founder of Dooly and a leader in the tech industry with over twenty years of experience. Before founding Dooly, he held senior consulting and management positions in sales for companies like Mobify and led Vision Critical as their EVP Sales from its early startup days to revenues in excess of $100 million.

Justin Vaillancourt is a force to be reckoned with—he started teaching himself how to code at the age of 8 and was working as a Software Developer by the age of 14. As the Co-Founder and CTO of Dooly, Justin previously held Lead Engineer positions at several emerging tech startups.

Megan is the award-winning author of Our Interrupted Fairy Tale. She is also the co-author of a children’s book with her award-winning, 10-year-old step-daughter, Madison. After 3 years of helping writers publish their books off the side of her corporate communications career, Megan launched The Self Publishing Agency in 2017. The Agency supports indie authors in writing, publishing and marketing their self published books. Her clients have been featured in The New York Times, The Globe and Mail, CTV, and BC Business.

Merideth is an entrepreneur and mother of three from Vancouver. She is the Founder of PROtect…Smart Personal Safety. The development of PROtect came together organically. She had one too many close encounters in her professional life where she was alone with a stranger and feeling vulnerable. Born out of a need to unite mobile technology with the reassurance of personal safety, the application allows users to connect with their closest contacts and alert them when they find themselves in unfamiliar or emergency scenarios.

Ilya is the CEO and founder of VanHack. After graduating from Cornell University with a Degree in Applied Economics and Management, Ilya spent 4 years working in the Brazilian startup scene where he joined the country’s most successful early stage accelerator. It was there he discovered a large community of talented software engineers who were interested in relocating to Canada, but didn’t always have the soft skills needed to work abroad. Upon moving back to Vancouver, he founded VanHack as a way of empowering people who wanted to have more out of life and live in Canada. VanHack now has over 170,000 members from 73 countries and has helped over 200 companies hire and relocate 446 developers across Canada and Europe. Ilya is fluent in Russian, Portuguese and English.

Paul Romani is the co-founder and director of Pear Tree Elementary, a progressive K-7 elementary school in the Kitsilano neighborhood of Vancouver, and the only school to teach children through theme and project-based learning, rather than through separate school subjects. Originally from the UK, Paul lived in Spain and Germany before moving to Vancouver. Through Pear Tree, Paul is equipping Vancouver children with the practical tools and knowledge they need to be happy and successful and, ultimately, to be their best selves: academically, socio-emotionally and physically. He also hopes to inspire a new generation of entrepreneurs.

Jen Ray, Director & Owner of Dancinema. Dancinema is a Canadian and American-based company founded in Vancouver that fuses the arts and industries of Dance & Film through productions, education and events. Next up is the 3rd annual Cascadia Dance & Cinema Festival, happening June 2 and 3 in Vancouver.

Diana is the Founder and CEO of Dragonfly MedTech, an early stage startup company in Vancouver who is building clinic software to enable medical doctors to provide a treatment solution for concussions. She is originally from Seattle where she worked for Microsoft for 13 years. She moved to Vancouver in 2001 to work for the doctor who developed this medical approach.

Fergus leads acquisitions and strategic partnerships at Glance Technologies. He has a background in strategic advising and management consulting for startups in Toronto, Vancouver and Silicon Valley. He holds a Master of Finance from the Rotman School of Management at U of T.

Melanie Ewan is Managing Partner at local startup advisory firm, Volition, where she oversees operations and communications, in addition to working with entrepreneurs on funding research and grant writing projects. As COO and Head of Research at Women in Tech World, a national grassroots organization based out of Vancouver. Melanie took to the road for two months this past fall, to provide a platform for Canadian women in tech, and their allies and advocates, to share their experiences and ideas for creating more inclusive and diverse tech communities nationwide. When Melanie isn’t working with clients, colleagues and community members, she can be found traveling.

Diane is an award-winning communications strategist and a sales & marketing expert. She is a master storyteller who has spoken on stages internationally and worked with hundreds of clients to initiate massive growth in their businesses. She has helped clients secure millions of dollars in funding and sales contracts, and initiate change through creating story-based speeches, webinars and investment pitches. Diane is the founder/CEO of “Be a Better Story” business services.

Bob Wang is the founder and CEO of Legacy Advantage. He holds a CPA, CA and had cut his teeth at one of the Big 4 accounting firms. Bob is passionate about entrepreneurship. Currently, he is on a mission to revolutionize the bookkeeping industry. He is married to Anne, and has a super energetic daughter, Elizabeth, who is 16 months old.

JoAnne Marlow is an educator/trainer, public speaker, professional life coach, and best selling published author of over 15 books and articles. JoAnne is a thought-leader in creating highly productivity multi-generational teams. She’s an advisor to upper management and their teams by assessing the issues within the culture and efficiency of the organization and assisting in the implementation of appropriate solutions and systems.

He got his Ph.D. in Mathematics from UBC in 1984. Bruce started his first company while finishing his thesis and was soon acquired into another startup which was doing AI for business applications. His most successful startup was Singular Software, which created the product PluralEyes for video production. Bruce is currently in the early stages of a new startup that is looking at applications of Deep Learning to audio processing and to making a better hearing aid.

A Blockchain Solution Expert at Vanbex Ventures. A 2x entrepreneur, Gregg has been working with technology startups since 2002 and blockchain since 2015 as an investor, trader and educator. He has extensive experience advising early-stage blockchain startups on product strategy and crypto economics.

Brings over 15 years of experience in marketing, communications and public relations. Throughout his career, he has also been a founder and board member of various foundations and charitable organizations. Through his award winning company, Jelly Marketing, Darian has worked with various local, national and global brands building and executing on their digital & PR strategies. He’s been featured in BC Business magazine, Business in Vancouver and on the Canada Post training circuit.

Phil Craig is originally from New Zealand, where he studied Chemistry and International Business. Despite the great people and an awesome place to work, he and his girlfriend decided to leave NZ and explore – travelling through South America for 6 months and then moving to Canada. His startup is a labour of love with a passion for science, and looking to help bring more of it to the world. Phil is eagerly building the first equity crowdfunding marketplace for research science right here in Vancouver, and it's called…Start the Reaction.